White House cocaine scandal sparks investigation by top Republican into security ‘failures’

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is demanding information from the US Secret Service (USSS) about the “breakdowns” in White House security that led to the “unacceptable” discovery of cocaine on the premises Sunday.

Comer, R-Ky., wrote to USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle, who is leading the investigation into the discovery of the substance — which includes reviewing security cameras and visitor logs — to receive information about security protocols within the White House. The agency also conducts fingerprint and DNA analysis of the pouch.

In the letter received Friday by DailyMail.com, Comer called the presence of illegal drugs in the White House an “unacceptable and embarrassing moment in White House history.”

Congress funds White House security procedures and the Secret Service has a responsibility to maintain effective security protocols. This incident and the eventual evacuation of personnel now clearly raise concerns about the level of security at the White House,” Comer continued.

The House Oversight Committee, which has jurisdiction over Secret Service operations, will continue to investigate the matter and plans to hold a staff-level briefing with the USSS on the matter by July 14, the Kentucky Republican promised.

After the substance was discovered on Sunday, the White House complex was evacuated. President Joe Biden was not on site at the time, as he spent the July 4 holiday weekend at Camp David with his son Hunter Biden, a recovering drug addict, and other grandchildren.

Details of where the powdered substance was found and who may have brought it have changed several times during the week.

Originally, dispatchers sent to the White House on Sunday to investigate the substance said it was found in the library. Then it was reported that it was in the West Wing lobby.

But according to a NBC news report cites multiple sources Thursday, the bag of powder was found in a cubicle near the West Executive entrance of the White House, not in the formal West Wing lobby.

That entrance — which is in the West Wing, but on the floor below the lobby — is also a high-traffic area, a description White House officials have used as a way to explain their doubts that the perpetrator will are being found.

The West Executive Entrance is located on West Executive Drive – the driveway between the west wing of the White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. That drive is where Vice President Kamala Harris’s motorcade parks and where senior staff have parking spaces.

That door is where senior citizens and the Vice President go to work in the West Wing and it is also the entrance used by VIPs for their private West Wing gatherings.

The West Executive Entrance (seen behind President Biden and his advisers – the tent is over it) is located on West Executive Drive, the driveway between the White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building where Vice President Kamala Harris’s motorcade parks

An original phone call said the substance was found in the White House library (above)

The West Wing lobby (above) is located one floor above the West Executive Entrance

On Wednesday, a day before the new NBC report came out, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre suggested that a member of the public while on tour may have left the Schedule A substance in a “heavily traveled area” of the Western Wing. .

“This is a heavily, heavily trafficked — heavily traveled to be more accurate — part of the White House campus. And here come the visitors from the West Wing,’ Jean-Pierre said. “I just don’t have anything else – I’m not going to speculate on who it was.”

She declined additional questions she called “hypothetical” about the investigation, and sent further inquiries to the USSS.

“We are confident that the Secret Service will get to the bottom of this,” she added.